Sopranos

[Harold_Z]

So much for Chris flipping.

Pretty good episode all in all. Chris's demise is low key - Tony making a decision in an instant to take advantage of a situation and get rid of a liability.

Chase is doing a good job of showing us that these guys are really sociopaths.

[AllenLowe]

actually, HBO has announced that they've expanded the final season for another 23 episodes - in each one, a different memeber of the cast is killed in a car accident, until the only one left is the idiot son A.J., who is than abducted by aliens and who than starts a race of mutant-Mafiosos on the planet Rommelac witht the leftover body parts of Christopher's murdered girl friend.

Edited May 14, 2007 by AllenLowe

[Eric]

So much for Chris flipping.

Pretty good episode all in all. Chris's demise is low key - Tony making a decision in an instant to take advantage of a situation and get rid of a liability.

Chase is doing a good job of showing us that these guys are really sociopaths.

My thoughts exactly. My initial reaction was that they were turning Tony into a bad guy ... then I just laughed at myself.

[porter_esq]

From Salon today:

The episode takes an odd turn when, instead of taking his anger out on someone close to him, Tony flies to Vegas to get some peace. We see him eating dinner alone, sitting by a pool. Finally, he looks up a hooker who slept with Christopher, then tells her Christopher is dead. The two end up sleeping together (no surprise there) and then talking honestly. They smoke a joint, and suddenly it seems that Tony may be trying to crawl inside of Christopher's experiences. He asks the girl about the time she took peyote with Christopher, and then she and Tony take the drug together and hit the casinos, looking dazed. Instead of losing all of his money as you'd expect, Tony goes on a huge winning streak, then falls down on the floor, suddenly struck that Christopher is dead and gone and he can't even feel happy over his good fortune. Will Tony ever feel happy again?

My take on this was Tony's luck returned with the death of Christopher, at least in his mind. He expected to lose, but just kept winning, and then it dawned on him that "He's dead. " The curse is lifted, and lifted by Tony being the murderous, cold-hearted bastard he truly is. He gets it. Be true to thyself, or, look out for yourself, fuck everybody else.

I think Tony might just whack everybody, Phil and AJ included.

[catesta]

From Salon today:

The episode takes an odd turn when, instead of taking his anger out on someone close to him, Tony flies to Vegas to get some peace. We see him eating dinner alone, sitting by a pool. Finally, he looks up a hooker who slept with Christopher, then tells her Christopher is dead. The two end up sleeping together (no surprise there) and then talking honestly. They smoke a joint, and suddenly it seems that Tony may be trying to crawl inside of Christopher's experiences. He asks the girl about the time she took peyote with Christopher, and then she and Tony take the drug together and hit the casinos, looking dazed. Instead of losing all of his money as you'd expect, Tony goes on a huge winning streak, then falls down on the floor, suddenly struck that Christopher is dead and gone and he can't even feel happy over his good fortune. Will Tony ever feel happy again?

My take on this was Tony's luck returned with the death of Christopher, at least in his mind. He expected to lose, but just kept winning, and then it dawned on him that "He's dead. " The curse is lifted, and lifted by Tony being the murderous, cold-hearted bastard he truly is. He gets it. Be true to thyself, or, look out for yourself, fuck everybody else.

I think Tony might just whack everybody, Phil and AJ included.

I think the Salon writer was half asleep.

You're absolutely correct that Tony falling on the floor laughing was in celebration, as if the curse was lifted and luck was again on his side.

[sal]

Saw the newest episode....god, I hate tony.

[Johnny E]

From Salon today:

The episode takes an odd turn when, instead of taking his anger out on someone close to him, Tony flies to Vegas to get some peace. We see him eating dinner alone, sitting by a pool. Finally, he looks up a hooker who slept with Christopher, then tells her Christopher is dead. The two end up sleeping together (no surprise there) and then talking honestly. They smoke a joint, and suddenly it seems that Tony may be trying to crawl inside of Christopher's experiences. He asks the girl about the time she took peyote with Christopher, and then she and Tony take the drug together and hit the casinos, looking dazed. Instead of losing all of his money as you'd expect, Tony goes on a huge winning streak, then falls down on the floor, suddenly struck that Christopher is dead and gone and he can't even feel happy over his good fortune. Will Tony ever feel happy again?

My take on this was Tony's luck returned with the death of Christopher, at least in his mind. He expected to lose, but just kept winning, and then it dawned on him that "He's dead. " The curse is lifted, and lifted by Tony being the murderous, cold-hearted bastard he truly is. He gets it. Be true to thyself, or, look out for yourself, fuck everybody else.

I think Tony might just whack everybody, Phil and AJ included.

I think the Salon writer was half asleep.

You're absolutely correct that Tony falling on the floor laughing was in celebration, as if the curse was lifted and luck was again on his side.

And in the end he is raising his arms in triumph looking at the sunrise and saying "I did it!!!" Yeah, that Salon writer has his head up his ass.

[Larry Kart]

I thought he said, "I get it!" -- as in one of those b.s. cosmic revelations people get when they've taken a powerful psychedelic drug and then see the sun come up, but "I did it!" certainly works too, maybe even better because it's so vile. Also, while I know Tony is a fictional character, it seems that he was determined to bed Christopher's college girl-hooker girlfriend for exceptionally twisted psychological reasons -- sort of an inside-out, upside down, half-gainer off the highboard Oedipal thing. Also, again, he says something to her about having wanted to try peyote before but not being able to because of his "responsibilities," as though killing Christopher has freed him. Further, we know that Tony has been brooding over his belief that "Cleaver" was a dramatization of Christopher's desire to kill him. I guess we should be grateful that Tony didn't grind up Christopher's corpse -- as Christopher (at Tony's direction) did Richie Aprile's after Janice shot and killed Richie -- and then dine on diced Christopher in the form of sausage.

Edited May 15, 2007 by Larry Kart

[medjuck]

I thought he said "I get it" too, but my wife assures me that usual I was wrong. She does have better ears than me.

[sal]

An article I read about the episode says that he said "I get it". Is there any way to view a script?

[JSngry]

Closed captioning?

[Larry Kart]

The Yahoo TV summary of the episode says that Tony said "I get it!"

Phil gets pissed when he finds out that Tony's been dumping asbestos at a place he owns, and he demands a huge cut of Tony's profits to make up for it. Neither Tony nor Phil wants to give in, and the temporary solution is that the asbestos gets illegally dumped in some wetlands.

While distracted by emotion and conversation (and, as it turns out, drugs) while driving with Tony, Christopher veers off the road and flips the truck multiple times. Tony was wearing a seatbelt and escapes with few injuries, but Christopher is wheezing and coughing up blood and begging Tony to help him out of the situation so he doesn't have to take a drug test, which he knows he would fail. Tony can't stop looking at the mangled car seat in the back of the truck. Disgusted by the whole situation, Tony suffocates Christopher.

In a dream, Tony admits to Melfi that he's relieved that Christopher died, because now he doesn't have to worry that Christopher will turn him over to the Feds or let him down again. Tony keeps trying to get others to admit to a sense of relief that Christopher is gone, but no one will. In the meantime, Paulie's Aunt Ma dies, and Paulie is furious that her wake didn't get as good of a turnout as Christopher's.

AJ seems to be doing better, and he's hanging out more with the two Jasons at college and even going to some college classes. He also doesn't stop his friends when they beat up a random Somali student for being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time. The sight of this random violence sends AJ back into a depression.

Tony heads on a solo trip to Las Vegas to get away from everything. He visits one of Christopher's old girlfriends, gives her the bad news, and sleeps with her. They take peyote together. Tony wins a bunch of money playing roulette while tripping, and then collapses in giggles on the casino floor when he realizes that Christopher is really dead. They go out into the desert to watch the sunrise, and Tony starts crying and yells, "I get it!"

[Soulstation1]

i still ain't seen an episode of the sopranos

[catesta]

Closed captioning?

What did you say?

[Eric]

Closed captioning?

What did you say?

If you watch with closed captioning on, the dialog appears printed on your screen.

[Eric]

I thought he said, "I get it!" -- as in one of those b.s. cosmic revelations people get when they've taken a powerful psychedelic drug

That was my take, although I was somewhat surprised that his tripping did not get ugly given a) his attempts at self-evaluation with Melfi and b) all the nasty shit he has done. I kept waiting for it, but instead it continues to reinforce the fact that he is (as mentioned earlier) a sociopath.

[catesta]

Closed captioning?

What did you say?

If you watch with closed captioning on, the dialog appears printed on your screen.

I'm aware of that.

I was attempting to make a joke as if I couldn't hear JSngry. Which in itself is a joke since he typed the words out.

[JSngry]

I get it!

[Van Basten II]

Gotta say the last episode was a little shocking, did not expect the character of Chrisopher to die, as far as what's going to happen, is AJ going to be the one who will succeed to Tony, when Tony will get clipped. More and more AJ seems to act like his father.

A sequel would maybe in order if the kid playing it was not a such a lame actor.

One thing does bother me about the show in terms of credibility, considering how many "civilians" got killed during the series you would figure out that with public pressure there would be more of an effort by the police to figure out these crimes and prosecute those who did the crime. I did notice that when a character kills a "civilian" he generally gets whacked soon after that but still...

[catesta]

I get it!

I did it!!!!

[Hot Ptah]

I loved the moment when Paulie complains about how no one is coming to his aunt's wake, and he says, "I bought 500 prayer cards!" as if one of the worst aspects of everyone's neglect is that he wasted the money on extra prayer cards. I see it as an echo of two previous shows in which Paulie took out his anger on the Catholic Church and/or a particular priest by not donating as much money as expected to the Church.

I didn't know whether it was meant to be significant or not, but Tony seems to make the decision to fly off to Vegas immediately after seeing Chris' widow breastfeeding her baby. It almost seemed to me that the sight of a breast compelled him to go somewhere where he could see a lot more of them.

I wonder if in real life, if a Mafia boss was laying down on the floor of a major casino making a scene, laughing his head off, obviously very loaded, if the casino would do nothing, and if it would not become the subject of some media publicity. I mean, what if Gallo or Gotti had done it?

[Eric]

Good episode tonight, although I wish AJ had been more successful

I am sure I will be proven wrong, but it seems we are going to see a "classic" mob ending, as the conflict between Tony and Phil can only end one way. I do wonder if Phil wil continue to jack with Meadow (which I see as part revenge for his brother and part an easy way to bait Tony). Although somewhat insignificant to the overall story line, I did like the way they reinforced the fact that Little Carmine is a lightweight - it made more sense than casting as a genuine power broker between Tony and Phil.

The preview snippets certainly seemed dramatic - did I hear Sil accusing Tony of "playing both sides"? If so, wonder what that is all about?

Edit: Sil says "someone" is playing both sides ...

Edited May 21, 2007 by Eric

[Larry Kart]

The preview snippets certainly seemed dramatic - did I hear Sil accusing Tony of "playing both sides"? If so, wonder what that is all about?

Edit: Sil says "someone" is playing both sides ...

I think that would be Paulie who is the "someone." We know he was doing that for a while with Johnny Sac, and seems likely that he would continue with Phil, though I don't recall any direct evidence of this.

[catesta]

The preview snippets certainly seemed dramatic - did I hear Sil accusing Tony of "playing both sides"? If so, wonder what that is all about?

Edit: Sil says "someone" is playing both sides ...

I think that would be Paulie who is the "someone." We know he was doing that for a while with Johnny Sac, and seems likely that he would continue with Phil, though I don't recall any direct evidence of this.

You would think Paulie is the most obvious, but as you just mentioned they have never shown Paulie and Phil together, of course that could still happen. Originally I was thinking it may very well be more along the lines of Carmine Jr. as that someone.

When you look back it was Tony that set Phil up to be boss in the first place when he had Rusty killed at the request of New York and sided against Carmine.

Maybe he's not as dumb as everybody thinks and is setting himself up for a major move.

Then again....., maybe not.

As usual Tony went too far with his reaction on that incident with Meadow and now he will pay a huge price.

If the previews are to be believed, next week should be explosive.

[Shrdlu]

My favorite soprano is Trane!